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Pcdmartv aiu mtrwTjhrnt. 



THEOSOPHY. 



PSYCHK 



INVOLVED IN THE CYCLE OF NECESSITY. 



HEREIN IS OUTLINED THE METHOD 



LIBERATION 



AND RETURN TO 



HER HEAVENLY ABODE 



/37l20O. 



THE 



NATURE AND AIM 



THEOSOPHY. 



AN ESSAY 



J. D. BUCK, 



CINCINNATI: 
Rorert Clarke & Co 






Copyright, 1889, 
By ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 



dedicated 



TO THOSE WHO SEEK 



The Truth, 



THAT THEY MAY SERVE 



THE PERFECT LAW. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

The following essay was first published nearly four 
years ago, and has been for some time out of print ; but 
as there is still considerable inquiry for it, which its publish- 
ers are unable to meet, it has been thought best to issue a 
new edition, and in an improved form. 

Since the first appearance of The Nature and Aim of 
Theosophy, as an unpretentious pamphlet, a very large 
amount of literature on the subject has been given to the 
public. The demand for information on the subject of 
Theosophy has given rise to two monthly magazines de- 
voted to such explanations as are sought, and for commu- 
nication between the society at large and its members 
scattered through many lands. In London "Lucifer," 
the "Light bearer,'" and in New York "The Path," are 
devoted to this purpose, while the ' ' Theosophist " is still 
published at Adyar, India, as the organ of the society in 
the East. The demand for literature on the subject is 
steadily on the increase, and the above-named journals are 
distributed quite as extensively outside as within the 
ranks of the society itself. 



Yin 



PREl u I TO THE SECOND EDITION 



During these last four years the number of branch 
societies and general membership have nearly if not quite 
doubled, but this by no means represents the diffusion of 
the doctrines or the strength of the movement. There 
may be found in every community hundreds of persons 
who have read with interest these new-old views of nature 
and of man, and who, if still unconvinced, are by no means 
satisfied to give up the quest in this direction. It is a 
common expression with such inquirers that, " Theosophy 
may be all that it is represented to be, but I can not under- 
stand it." The reason for this failure to seize and to 
understand, lies in the fact that Theosophy traverses the 
whole realm of human knowledge, including both man and 
nature, and explains also the nature and foundation of all 
religions. It is by no means strange, therefore, that the 
ordinary individual or the average reader should fail to 
comprehend the entire subject in a few weeks or months. 
There is a notable absence of both formulary and ultima- 
tum, and this must necessarily be so from the nature of the 
case. The pursuit of happiness, the glory of God, and the 
salvation of the soul, are motives and aims that may be defi- 
nitely stated, and supposed to be easily understood. Yet no 
one at all familiar with modern thought, and with the condi- 
tions of society among both the poor and the rich, needs to 
be reminded how seldom these formulated objects really 
satisfy the lives of men and women. Theosophy not only 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IX 

explains the reason for this wide-spread dissatisfaction, but 
also undertakes to put the inquirer upon different lines of 
search with the assurance that entire satisfaction may in 
time be reached ; not however as in a goal to be reached, 
or a "salvation" attainable once for all. Theosophy 
rather places man upon a Path, and gives him the assur- 
ance beyond all question that he is journeying in the right 
direction. The light by which he walks no longer flickers, 
and he has ceased to fear that it will ever go out or disap- 
point him. The genuine Christian will find his doubts and 
his obscurities disappearing, and Christos will be to him a 
Divinity that is no longer an incomprehensible mystery. 
Theosophy enables every earnest seeker for truth to compre- 
hend his own religion. Jt never under any circumstances 
seeks to convert any man from one religion to another, as 
for example; from Buddhism to Christianity, or from 
Christianity to Buddhism. "The Mystery of Godliness ; ' 
is but another name for the mystery in man. Jt will be 
time enough for man to talk of the mystery of God and 
the nature of Deity, when he has solved the mystery of his 
own origin, nature, and destiny. Theosophy undertakes 
to solve just this mystery. When this mystery is every- 
where recognized, it would seem that any prospect of a 
solution would be hailed with joy. On the other hand, 
however, it is generally ridiculed or violently opposed be- 
fore it is even examined, or by any means understood. 



K PREFACE I'U THE SECOND EDITION. 

••Things settled by long use, if not absolutely good, at 
least fit well together." We cling to our creeds, our idols, 
and even to our own ignorance as part of our selfish selves. 
Men argue, not as seekers of truth, but to maintain their 
own opinions, right or wrong, and if beaten in an argument 
they are by no means convinced of error, they generally 
get angry. Hence the saying. 

" One convinced against his will, 
Is of the same opinion still." 

Every genuine seeker for truth, for knowledge, and 
for enlightenment, will find in Theosophy that for which he 
seeks. He who can not rise above ridicule, and whose 
argument consists largely in blackguarding, will also find 
in Theosophy a fruitful field. It will reflect for him only 
his own image as in a magic glass. 

The following essay offers but an introduction, a bare 
outline of the subject, but it seems often to have incited 
inquiry, and to have led to more thorough search, and thus 
may have aided a little the spread of knowledge so much 
needed. 

The author has considered the idea of altering and en- 
larging it, as it is often crude and disjointed. The recent 
appearance, however, of Madam Blavatsky's "Kevto 
Theosophy," has rendered such elaboration of the subject 
unnecessary. The above work is just what its title indi- 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XI 

cates. It is a plain, practical, and explicit statement of 
the objects of the Theosophical Society, and the principles 
upon which it is founded, such as every intelligent reader 
can understand. People are of course quite at liberty to 
reject these doctrines in part or in whole, but the com- 
plaint need no longer be made that Theosophy is incom- 
prehensible. 

Cincinnati, October, 1889. J. I). B. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The following essay upon a subject that is just now 
exciting inquiry, is the barest outline of investigations to 
which the writer has devoted many years of earnest in- 
quiry and conscientious study. Dissatisfied, in common 
with many thoughful men and women, both with current 
beliefs and the soulless negations of materialism, and satis- 
fied that neither the nature nor the destiny of man is com- 
prehended by the faiths or the materialism of the day, and 
yet that the real truth is not past finding out, the present 
essay has been prepared as an outline of the results to 
which he has arrived. In the course of these investiga- 
tions, animal magnetism, somnambulism, trance, howso- 
ever induced, and the phenomena of modern spiritualism, 
have been under careful review, not to the extent of ex- 
haustion, which would be practically impossible, but to an 
extent sufficient for classification and comparison. What 
is known as modern spiritualism contains a great truth, 
a still greater delusion, and innumerable downright frauds. 
The knowledge requisite to discriminate between these is 
only possessed by the initated Adept, a phenomenon seen 

(i3) 



14 IN rRODUCTION. 

hardly once in a thousand years. To us common mortals, 
therefore, there remain the fact and the phantasms, beliefs 
and denials, while phenomenalism or spook-hunting is one 
of the most dangerous and demoralizing ol pastimes, and 
the condition of the " medium" often pitiable in the ex- 
treme, moral perdition and suicide from obsession often 
staring him in the face; an idea at which spiritualists grow 
indignant, and which so-called scientists ridicule. 

It is an old saying that "All roads lead to Rome." 
Truth is many-sided, yet one. The watch-word of theos- 
ophy is truth, and as this one truth relates to all know- 
ledge; whether cosmic or microcosmic, it can not be even 
outlined in a single essay. 

Theosophy is religion, science, and philosophy, and 
these three at once : a religion, because it aims to know, 
to become, and, therefore, to worship the truth : a science 
because it examines by strict analysis all processes in 
nature, in order to discover that which is : a philosophy, 
because by logical synthesis from the facts of nature dis- 
covered by science, it deduces the laws which underlie 
phenomena, and govern the universe. Theosophy is 
therefore the work of a lifetime, nay of many lives or 
incarnations. Yet need not the neophyte be discouraged, 
for as said of old, the way is so plain that a man, though 
a fool, need not err therein, and so simple that a man may 
read as he runs. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 5 

Theosophy differs from modern science which practi- 
cally ignores one-half of nature, still foolishly and illogi- 
cally called the supernatural. Nature includes all that 
is; then what can be above and beyond nature? 

Inside, not outside nature, is the moving cause, the Great 
Soul. Theosophy differs from all philosophies known 
to modern times, though it contains the essence of all that 
in them is logical and true, and finds most in common 
with the philosophy of Schopenhauer, emphasizing like 
him, both cosmic or deific and human will. It finds much 
in the philosophy of Swedenborg, and emphasizes the law 
of correspondence, equilibrium, and harmony. Theoso- 
phy differs from all known religions or their outer garb, or 
exoteric interpretation, while it agrees with and unifies 
the esoteric or divine wisdom, which is the foundation of 
all great religions. It will thus be seen that the subject is 
inexhaustible, and co-extensive with eternal nature. 
r \ neosophy lays down certain principles for the neophyte, 
who as a Student of Nature, enters upon his endless career. 

Conscience, the God within him, is his sole guide; 
truth, his unswerving aim, not by mere tacit consent, but 
by zeal, or as Emerson says, " by honoring every truth by use." 

Conscientious devotion to knowledge, justice, charity, 
philanthrophy, constitutes the true theosophist. He rec- 
ognizes an enlightened conscience as the Voice of God 
within his own soul, supreme in authority, unerring in its 



1 6 INTRODUCTION. 

decisions, uncompromising in its commands and judgments, 
and to this he listens as to a sacred oracle, a divine reve- 
lation, and he heeds no other. 

The ancient wisdom religion was written in hieroglyph- 
ics, and expressed 1)}- symbols, the true interpretation of 
which' is entirely unknown to modern times. The holy 
scriptures of all religions were thus written, and to the true 
follower, the initiate, it was said "Unto you it is given to 
know the mystery of the kingdon of Heaven, but to them 
it is not given." True initiation was not by forms and 
ceremonies from without, but by spiritual experience 
within. This knowledge, as well as the initiation, was set 
forth by symbols, allegories, and parables. To these sym- 
bols there was a key, with which the neophyte could 
thread the labyrinth and unlock the mystic chambers of 
knowledge. 

Theosophy unfolds this knowledge by discovering the 
key. But here as elsewhere, a little knowledge is a danger- 
ous thing. Some have imagined that to become a thee so- 
phist, one must retire from the world into the desert or the 
mountain solitudes, and feed on herbs. The history of the 
middle ages, of the moral leprosy, and mistaken zeal of 
many sodalities, no less than the distortions, and horrible 
deformities of the postulants of the East, ought long ago to 
have taught the most superficial observer, the everlasting 
folly of such a course. He who begins by disregarding 



INTRODUCTION. iy 

any known obligation to family, kindred or country, will 
end by disregarding all save self, the first and only thing 
that theosophy bids him disregard. The nominal Christian 
need not go to India, nor to Jerusalem to learn the princi- 
ples or methods of theosophy : he will find them abun- 
dantly illustrated in his own scriptures, in the teachings 
attributed to the " Man of Sorrows," though disfigured by 
forgeries, and distorted by false interpretations. To these 
teachings when correctly understood, and truthfully inter- 
preted, theosophy has little to add or take away ; but 
to the exegesis of sanhedrims, synods, councils, and 
ecclesiastical commands, it has every thing to object. It 
repudiates them in toto, as crafty, time-serving, selfish and 
false, crucifying again the Christ, and hiding the truth 
designed to bind the conscience of the ignorant, to the 
service of greed and lust for power. The most sacred 
possession of man is concience, the Voice of God within 
the soul. No greater folly can be commited than to en- 
trust this divine voice to the keeping of another. No 
greater crime, than for another to claim by divine right, 
to be his brother's keeper. Modern civilization has repu- 
diated human slavery. It remains for it to remove the 
shackles of the soul, and free the conscience ; then shall 
man learn the difference between liberty and license, and 
make fruitful the vineyard of the Lord. The sale of in- 
dulgences precipitated the reformation ; let freedom of the 



15 INTRODUCTION. 

soul in the light of science and civil freedom complete it. 
In conclusion, a word may be said regarding the frontis- 
piece. As already remarked, the ancients expressed by 
symbols and allegories the deepest truths, which by De- 
grees were unfolded gradually to the neophyte as the 
"mysteries of initiation/' The nature, origin, fall and 
redemption of man were thus represented, and this from 
no mere fancy or foolish fable, but from actual knowledge 
scientifically ascertained. No more beautiful and instruc- 
tive fable exists in ancient writing than that of ' ' Cupid and 
Psyche," the descent of the soul into matter, as told by 
Apulius and other ancient writers. The frontis, taken from 
a recent reprint of "The Divine Pymander," illustrates 
this fable. The four elements symbolized by the man's 
winged head, the eagle, the lion, and the ox, also the four 
ages, the Golden age, the age of Silver, Copper, and Iron 
— the sun and the moon representing the dual cosmic pow- 
ers, the serpents representing the sexual entrance into 
life, the conjunction of planets or stars determining con- 
ditions of birth, life, etc. — all these and more, maybe read 
from this beautiful picture. To purify the soul, and liber- 
ate it from the cycle of ' necessity > the chains of matter, the "old 
serpent" that environ it. and so enabling it to regain its 
pristine purity and heavenly abode, is the problem of 
occultism or theosophy. To put science in the place of 
sentiment, philosophy in the place of speculation, relig- 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

ion in the place of superstition, knowledge in the place of 
ignorance : to practice and unfold the principle of altru- 
ism, or the essential Brotherhood of Humanity, and over 
all to recognize Laic, Justice and Truth, is the purpose 
of theosophy. 



THEOSOPHY. 



The term theosophy is by no means a new one, though 
many persons, doubtless, have heard it recently for the 
first time. 

The etymology of the word will aid us but little in ar- 
riving at its real meaning. At the organization of the 
Theosophical Society in New York City, some ten years 
ago, this name was selected to represent its nature and 
aims, and wisely so, as the sequel will show.* 

If we inquire into the use made of this term in either 
ancient or modern times, we shall find, that while it has 
quite as much to do with a knowledge of man, as with the 
''Wisdom of God," it, in fact, unifies both. 

Pythagoras defines philosophy as the " love of knowl- 

*Note — There are many societies older than the Theosophical 
Society, that teach substantially the same doctrines, occultism : 
even the names of many of these societies are never mentioned to 
the uninitiated. 

(21) 



22 THEOSOPHY. 

edge." When Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, asked 
Pythagoras, "Are there in your country nowise men?" 
the sage replied, " No; we are not wise, but lovers of 
wisdom." 

In earlier times, as now, there was a great deal of 
mystery surrounding theosophy. The theosophists were 
also styled Mystics, while mysticism, occultism, and the- 
osophy have often stood for the same thing. 

If we seek in earlier times an exponent of the doc- 
trines and principles of theosophy, we shall perhaps find 
no more prominent character than Jacob Bohme, who 
styled himself The Teutonic Theosopher, and who 
wrote numerous volumes some three hundred years ago. 
Bohme was, as the world goes, a poor, little, ignorant shoe- 
maker of Old Seidenburg, in Upper Lusatia. He was 
persecuted during his life, driven from his home, denied 
Christian burial, and this persecution was continued to his 
wife and children after his death, by the avaricious and 
licentious priesthood of his time ; and yet, strange to say, 
Bohme's works are oxthodox in the strictest sense, and 
furnish the basis of doctrine and the life work of his 
translator and commentator, the celebrated English divine 
Win, Law. So much for the consistency of oxthodoxy 
and the irony of history. 

But the study of the writings of Bohme has been by no 
means confined to the church. Among the manuscripts 



THEOSOPHY. 23 

left by Sir Isaac Newton were found copious translations 
from Bohme, while Goethe, Oken, Schopenhauer, and in 
our own country, Emerson, were among his profound 
admirers, and this, notwithstanding the fact that from first 
to last Bohme's works were written in the jargon of the 
alchemists, "The Great Work," and the "salt, sulphur, 
and mercury" veiling. from the ignorant and the profane 
on the one side, and the Torquemadas on the other, the 
" Divine Sophia," the " Pearl," which on every page it was 
solemnly declared should never be "cast before swine." 

The ignorant worship what they can not understand, 
and the rulers by divine right in church and state, have 
ever seized on this fact to keep the masses in ignorance and 
bondage ; hence, that mysticism which is knowledge to 
the wise, is a mystery to the ignorant. If, therefore, we 
turn in an age of intelligence and free inquiry to the 
records of mysticism, we shall find that they have fur- 
nished the loftiest themes to musician, artist, poet, and 
painter ; and that by these lights the monuments of history 
stand revealed. 

Richard Wagner seized upon the "Legend of the 
Holy Grail," the very center and core of mysticism, and 
scorning alike criticism and conventionally, places his 
Parsifal among the immortal stars of human genius. 

Goethe retouches the Faust Legend, and our critics of 
a materialistic regime have not yet traveled beyond the 



•J 4 THEOSOPHY. 

" first part" in solving the mystery ; and where they have 
solved the second, they will have to review again the first 
part. 

So also in art, the Laoeo'on remains a sphynx, in spite 
of critic and reviewer; while the Pyramids, immortal in 
their strength and grandeur, sublime in their simplicity, 
defving alike the hand of time and the unaided intellect 
of man, are only now beginning to tell their story. 

What is the meaning of this revival of theosophy in 
the nineteenth century? 

Every student of the philosophy of history, every 
thoughful observer of human nature, must have discovered 
that cyclic changes every-where obtained in the affairs of 
men ; and if he goes deep enough, he will discover that 
these cycles constitute a spiral, fitly symbolized by the 
Tower of Babel, never yet revealed in the confusion of 
tongues. It is furthermore known, that the revolutions of 
the Sun, Moon, and Earth, are not the only ones that affect 
the children of men. The Cycle of Meton, as it is called, 
gives to the church, Catholic and Protestant alike, their 
times and seasons, fasts and feasts. Another great cycle 
closed, we are told, in 1881, and those deeply versed in 
the ancient wisdom tell us, that between this date and 
1888, very important changes will occur, affecting the cli- 
mate and surface of the earth, no less than the health, and 
the moral and spiritual well-being of man. 



THEOSOPHY. 25 

A recent delver in the mysteries of the Caballah - ;; has 
discovered hidden in the Hebrew text of the Bible, 
not only the modulus on which the Pyramids were con- 
structed, but the very equation, to the last decimal place, 
by which we now calculate the distance of the sun ; and 
though I might add hundreds of equally startling dis- 
coveries of ancient wisdom, there is nevertheless a dis- 
covery, or rather a revelation, beside which these empiri- 
cal data sink into insignificance. It is this revelation, as 
the sequel will show, that gives a new impulse to the term 
theosophy. 

This is the age of science. Steam, electricity, and the 
printing press have changed the face of the habitable 
globe, and we boast alike of material progress and politi- 
cal freedom ; yet the inexorable law of compensation holds 
good here as elsewhere, and material advancement is 
marked by spiritual decline. 

No effect is without a cause. So long as the church, 
whether Catholic or Protestant, was dominant, so long as 
the ignorant masses were content to accept on faith the 
dicta of religion, we heard little of the conflict of religion 
and science. But the pendulum has swung from that 
blind superstition which fears and trembles, but dares not 
question, to that crass materialism which dares not be- 

* Mr. J. Ralston Skinner. 



26 THEOSOPHY. 

lieve, and is too indifferent even to investigate. Our 
boasted liberty has degenerated into lawlessness; our 
national gods are Mammon and Materialism, twin mons- 
ters, whose insane votaries are forever clutching each 
other's throats, and the unholy trinity that stares us in the 
face is rum, riot, and ruin. A doleful picture indeed, but 
" t is true, 'tis pity, and pity 'tis, 'tis true.'' Every earn- 
est, thoughtful soul, every true man and woman desires 
a remedy for this sad state into which we have fallen, this 
moral leprosy into which we have plunged. We are 
pointed to the churches and to the Christian religion, but 
alas! though many noble, earnest souls still cling to the 
forms, from which both life and soul have departed, though 
many are far better and few worse than their creeds, yet 
have these abuses in the body social and the body politic, 
not only grown apace with the churches, but they have 
crept into them, till the world is no nearer redemption to- 
day than it was a thousand years ago. We are pointed to 
hospitals for the sick, infirmaries for the insane, homes for 
orphans and the -aged, as the work largely of organized 
church charity, yet besides these institutions flourish also 
alms-houses, penitentiaries, reform schools, Magdalen and 
foundling homes, institutions that are unknown and un- 
needed in many of those heathen countries to which we 
send missionaries. The very presence of these institu- 
tions is a confession that we do not know how to prevent 



THEOSOPHY. 2 1 

crime, seduction, bastardy, insanity, and pauperage. If 
we add to all this, the increase of crime, drunkenness, 
political and moral degradation, it may be well to inquire 
whither our boasted civilization tends ? Had the organ- 
ized churches presented an adequate remedy, backed by 
the power of divine truth, such a condition of things had 
been impossible ; but the trouble lies not in the nature and 
basis of that religion as originally laid down, and for the 
first three centuries exemplified, as will appear further on. 
It is not because the churches are Christian, but because 
they are ////-Christian, involved with the rest in Mammon- 
worship and materialism, unwilling to believe, and yet un- 
able to demonstrate the fact that the spirit of man is 
immortal. People have grown tired of theological hair- 
splitting, and we hear little nowadays of the gentleman 
with hoofs and horns that terrified a former generation of 
evil-doers. Sheol is a sort of warmed-over joke for the 
place of torment; fear has departed, though wisdom has 
by no means taken its place. 

With this condition of things acknowledged and la- 
mented, there is a large and increasing class in the com- 
munity who have outgrown the old creeds, born of the 
interpretations of an ignorant age, when ecclesiasticism held 
temporal power, and when to question was to burn. This 
class, who are weary of endless discussions that lead to no 
conclusions that reason can accept, who are bewildered, 



28 THEOSOPHY. 

and at last silenced, but not convinced, call themselves 
Agnostic, and in apathy or despair, are content to say, 
We do not know. 

As a class, these people are intelligent ; as citizens, 
moral ; as men and women kind and charitable ; but, un- 
fortunately, they are looked up to by the masses, who op- 
pressed by poverty, and enslaved by ignorance, carry on 
their banner the fatal motto, " We do not care" 

These ignorant masses looking in vain to those who from 
education, position, and opportunity, ought to be a help to 
the unfortunate and an inspiration to the despairing, be- 
come wearied, disappointed, and envious, and it is from this 
large class that our prisons, alms-houses, insane asylums, 
and foundlings homes are recruited. They have asked for 
bread, and we have given them a stone. The criticism and 
materialism of the age have deprived them of their faith, 
and yet have been unable to lead them into knowledge. 
If you talk to them of religion and the churches, they 
laugh at you ; if you deprive them of liquor, they will 
stone you, and burn your houses for attempting to take 
away the last solace of the despairing, oblivion. These 
are the conditions that stare us in the face. Is human life 
on this planet necessarily a failure ? Are the nature, the 
ministry, and the destiny of man past finding out ? Has 
not the time come for us to take council together? 

Every thoughful observer of the times, must have dis 



THEOSOPHV. 29 

covered that the creeds of the world are crumbling into 
dust ; the advancement of science has undermined them. 
Here, not even the law of . the survival of the fittest 
obtains; they are all full of error, all false, and must all 
go, soon or late. But back of all these is the everlasting 
truth, from which they sprung through man's ignorant at- 
tempts to formulate. The philosophy of Plato, the doc- 
trines of the Essenes and Gnostics, entered largely into 
the Christian philosophy, but even these were veiled in 
mystery, to be comprehended only by the initiated like 
Paul. 

There always was the secret, esoteric interpretation for 
the initiated, and the letter of the law for the common peo- 
ple. This secret wisdom is no longer in the possession of 
the priesthood ; their patent has therefore expired. The' 
children of this generation are wiser in many things than 
the priests of old, and the amount of general and scien- 
tific information possessed by the people renders the old 
land-marks, the old methods, useless. The basis of re- 
ligion must neither ignore, nor do violence to philosophy, 
to science, or to the common sense of mankind. 

Suppose we adopt for our motto that of the Maharajahs 
of Benares, There is no religion higher than truth • 
and then, instead of arrogantly or apathetically inquiring 
what is truth, let us agree that truth has always one sign, 
one quality, // always agrees with itself, and taking the 



30 THEOSOPHY. 

three categories of human knowledge, religion, philosophy, 
and science, see if we can not find a scientific philosophy 
and a philosophical religion, in other words a Gnosis. This 
is the problem presented by theosophy, and it is squarely 
met, and the number, character, and intelligence of those 
who have received from it a satisfactory answer, is far 
greater than most people suppose. 

For the time being the old creeds must be laid aside, 
though the Christian retains his Christianity, the Jew his 
Judaism, the Buddhist and Mohamedan their peculiar 
faith, and if he chooses, his own forms of worship, being 
required only to exercise that degree of courtesy and toler- 
ation tow r ards others that he requires for himself, while the 
creeds and basis of all religions are passed under review. 
Very soon it will be discovered, that while the basis and 
inspiration are the same, the formulations only differ, and 
as these formulations are shown to be untrue and effete, 
they will be easily discarded, one and all. 

It will thus be seen that at the very beginning is 
achieved that basis of Brotherhood which all other methods 
have failed to attain. Presently we shall begin to learn 
the meaning of that old inscription written in letters of 
gold, over the entrance of the temples, Man, know thy- 
self. A new meaning will be given to that old saying, 
" The kingdom of heaven is within you," and we will have 
grown philosophical enough to add, so, also, is the kingdom 
of hell. 



THEOSOPHY, 31 

The scientist has a perfect right to demand procf that 
there is such a thing as a human soul, now that he, in com- 
mon with the majority of mankind, has lost the conscious- 
ness of it. While, therefore, the scientist pursues his 
investigations by strictly scientific methods, the true philos- 
opher will cease his foolish speculations concerning the 
"unknowable," will quit chopping logic and sawing the 
air, and by strict synthesis, without logical flaw or false 
syllogism, from the facts discovered by science, will de- 
duce the laws that underlie the occult and mysterious 
nature of man. 

By and by our agnostic will become interested, and in 
place of apathetically saying, " We do not know," he will 
declare that, by the everlasting intelligence he will find out; 
and if he sufficiently emphasize the little word will, his 
labors will not be in vain, as thousands who have made the 
experiment can assure him. Such a reconciliation of re- 
ligion, philosophy, and science, a platform on which all 
can stand without the sacrifice of intelligence or self-re- 
spect, seems too good to be true. Is it not at least worth 
an effort ? 

It is not proposed, be it observed, to replace Christian- 
ity by Buddhism, nor Buddhism by Mohammedanism, nor 
both by Judaism, nor yet all three by Spiritualism, but to 
bring each of the old religions back to its esoteric origin, 
meaning, and purity, and if they are found to be in es- 



32 THEOSQPHY. 

sence one, shall we not have found the true religion of 
HUMAN] iv ? 

But just here appears the need of wisdom, not only to 
declare, but ability to demonstrate the esoteric basis of all 
religions, including lost records that shall put the matter 
beyond all dispute. 

Now suppose that at this stage of our proceedings, it 
were discovered that there are living men who possess just 
this knowledge and ability, and possess these records; men 
who had gone over all this ground, not by patching together 
fragments of different religions, but who possess a knowl- 
edge of science, so profound as to dwarf into insignifi- 
cance our boasted modern discoveries : who, living in com- 
munities far removed and purposely inaccessible to 
modern civilization, have preserved the priceless treas- 
ures of the past : who, removed from the vicious influence 
of modern civilization, and possessing a knowledge of the 
laws of life, live to an age that to us seems incredible, 
transmitting from generation to generation of selected and 
initiated Neophytes, their accumulated wisdom and price- 
less treasures ; and who now at the completion of one of the 
world's great cycles, for the first time in centuries give 
out to the world a part of their treasures; requiring no 
pledge, save only allegiance to truth, no price, save that 
he who receives shall as freely give, and so help along the 
reign of Universal Brotherhood among the races of men. 



THEOSOPHY. • 33 

These Brothers are willing and anxious to teach every 
earnest soul, and to demonstrate the truth of all the above 
propositions, "Truth and only truth," being their motto, 
and that demonstrable and free to all who will investigate 
and receive it. 

What I have supposed, is but a bare recital of that 
which has actually come to pass, and among the thousands 
over all the world, who have taken these Brothers at their 
word, I have not heard of one who has been disappointed 
or turned away. 

I am aware that such a statement will strike many peo- 
ple as incredible, and that they will be inclined to question 
the sanity of him who makes it ; yet it is the barest outline 
of the simple truth. It will at once be asked, how have 
these Brothers been able to keep their very existence so 
long a secret ? 

I answer, that the Law of Silence was ever the first to 
be observed, and that according to their own statement 
their safety has often consisted in that the people refused 
to believe such an existence possible. Read the account 
given by Abbe Hue, for which he was unfrocked by his 
ecclesiastical superiors, and his still more startling state- 
ments outside his published works. Or, in more ancient 
times, read the account that Apollonius of Tyana gives of 
his visit to these Brothers, though it is evident on every 
page that he conceals far more than he reveals. Again, 



34 THEOSOPHY. 

read the account in that old work, " Hcrmippus Rcdivivus" 
of these " Sons of Light." Coming down to more recent 
times, read the account that travelers, and even mission- 
aries, give of the wonders performed by half-naked travel- 
ing Fakirs, a faint echo of the transcendent powers and 
lofty genius of the Holy men of the Himavat, the exist- 
ence of whom the Fakirs would declare, could they be 
induced to speak. 

In spite of evidence to be derived from many sources, 
some, no doubt, will content themselves with denying the 
whole thing as simply incredible, an old woman's fable, 
and go on repeating, "We do not know," or " We do not 
care."' Those, however, and they are many, who have 
read Mr. Sinnett s Occult World and Esoteric Buddhism, 
and the later work by Two Chelas; Man, Fragments of 
Forgotten History, ought to supplement them with those 
rare jewels, The Idyll of the White Lotus, and Light on 
the Path ; and if by this time they are not interested 
enough to inquire whether this is all true, and if there is 
more from the same source, they may as well defer the 
matter to the next incarnation. 

Soon after the appearance of Isis Unveiled the head- 
quarters of the Theosophical Society removed from New 
York City, first to Bombay, and subsequently to Adyar, in 
the Madras presidency, India, where they permanently re- 
main. Branch societies are scattered all over India and 



THEOSOPHY. 35 

Ceylon, as well as most civilized countries of the giube. 
The Theosophical Society is the medium through which 
the Brothers have undertaken to present to the world their 
long cherished doctrines, in such form as the world is found 
ready to receive, and in such measures as the times require, 
practical, not merely intellectual, Universal Brotherhood 
being the one condition of affiliation insisted on, while the 
terms of more intimate relations with the Brothers them- 
selves, or Chelaship, arc clearly set forth, for, to use their 
own words, they say, " We refuse no one." 

Upon the organization of one of the Branch Societies 
in India, it was thought by some of the members, that it 
would be a good thing to organize on a different basis from 
the rest, and to have certain educated Englishmen con- 
nected therewith, taken in hand by the Brothers, and 
drilled in practical occultism, taught, in fact, the secret 
wisdom which had been so jealously guarded for centuries, 
and so constitute a Theosophical Hierarchy. One is not 
likely to misunderstand the answer returned by one of the 
Brothers to this suggestion. I quote a portion of the un- 
published letter. 

"The world in general and Christendom especially, 
left for two thousand years to the regime of a personal God, 
as well as its political and social systems, based on that 
idea, has now proved a failure. 

"If the theosophist says we have nothing to do with 



36 THEOSOPHY. 

all this, the lower classes and inferior races, those of India 
for instance, in the conception of the British, can not con- 
cern ns, and must manage as they can, what becomes of our 
fine professions of benevolence, philanthrophy, reform, 
etc.? Are these professions a mockery; and if a mockery 
can ours be the true path ? Shall we devote ourselves to 
teaching a few Europeans fed on the fat of the land, many 
of them loaded with the gifts of blind fortune, the ration- 
ale of bell-ringing, cup-growing, and astral body forma- 
tion, and leave the teeming millions of the ignorant, the 
poor and despised, the lowly and oppressed, to take care 
of themselves, and their hereafter, the best they know 
how ? Never ! perish rather the Theosophical Society 
with both its hapless founders, than that we should permit 
it to become no better than an academy of magic, and a 
hall of occultism ; and it is we, the humble disciples of 
these perfect Lamas, who are expected to allow the Theo- 
sophical Society to drop its noblest title, ' The Brotherhood 
of Humanity,'' to become a simple school of philosophy. 
Let us understand each other. He who does not feel 
competent enough to grasp the noble idea sufficiently to 
work for it. need not undertake a task too heavy for him. 
But there is hardly a theosophist in the whole society un- 
able to effectually help it, by correcting the erroneous im- 
pression of outsiders, if not by actually propagating him- 
self this idea. Oh for the noble and unselfish man to help 



THEOSOPHY. 37 

us effectually in India, in that divine task ! All our knowl- 
edge, past and present, would not be sufficient to repay 
him. The true religion and philosophy offers the solution 
of every problem. That the world is in such a bad con- 
dition morally, is conclusive evidence that none of. its re- 
ligions and philosophies, those of the civilized races less 
than any other, have ever possessed the truth. The right 
and logical explanation of the subject of the problems of 
the great dual principles, 'right and wrong,' 'good and 
evil,' 'liberty and despotism,' 'pain and pleasure,' 'ego- 
tism and altruism,' are as impossible to them now as they 
were 1881 years ago. They are as far from the solution 
as they were ; but to these there must be somewhere a 
consistent solution, and if our doctrines will show their 
competence to offer it, then the world will be the first to 
confess it. That must be the true philosophy, the true 
light, the true religion, which gives truth, and nothing but 
the truth." 

, It will thus be seen what are the principles and aims of 
these exalted Brothers, in relation to the masses of man- 
kind, and that they are no respecters of persons. It may 
be asked, why have these transcendent truths been so long 
withheld from the world ? To this it may be answered, 
that they who possess and comprehend them, are likely to 
know also the times and seasons when they can make head- 
way in the world, and to announce them prematurely. 



38 THEOSOPHY 

would be to lose them, and destroy their custodians, if 
they had not the power to provide against such a catastro- 
phe. It is a cardinal principle in occultism, that, by a 
knowledge of, and conformity to the laws of nature, the 
Adept is able to accomplish that which to the ignorant 
seems miraculous. Says a wise occultist, "The wicked 
obey the law through fear ; the wise keep the law through 
knowledge." 

Political freedom and the advancement of science have 
on the one hand, made the promulgation of these doctrines 
possible, while the crumbling of creeds, and the material- 
ism of the age, have rendered them necessary to the well- 
being of the human race. 

Again it may be said, that the Secret Doctrine has 
never been without witnesses in the world, and though 
these witnesses like the doctrine itself, have been sur- 
rounded by mystery, and have written or spoken in a 
language unintelligible to the profane, yet have they ever 
been open to all who have knocked in the right way. These 
mysteries have cropped out in many forms, though never 
for ages so plainly as now, for their time has come. 

In the middle ages these mysteries were embodied in 
the obscure writings of the alchemists, at once the de- 
spair and the subject of hatred and ridicule with the igno- 
rant who could not comprehend them. But the odor of 
burning human flesh too often accompanied the illumina- 



THEOSOPHY. 39 

tion of these manuscripts to make revelations either desir- 
able or profitable.* . 

The Ro-sicrucians, concerning whom so much has been 
written and so little known, embodied more or less of these 
doctrines. To these may be added the writings of Plato, 
the Neo-Platonists, the doctrines, of Pythagoras, and those 
of the Kabalists, Hermetists, and others. There is no 
proof, however, that any of these were more than an echo 
of the transcendent wisdom of the Brothers of the Hima- 
vat. All these records were obscure, purposely veiled, so 
that there was not the least danger of their becoming 
known to the ignorant and profane, for be it remembered 
there were always both the right and the left hand paths 
to which this wisdom held the key. The former leading 
to Nirvana, or the at-one-ment of man, and the regenera- 
tion of the human race : the other Black Magic, leading at 
first to occult power, but finally and inevitably to everlast- 
ing destruction. The motto of the first is, All for 
Truth, and Truth for the sake of Humanity : the 

* ''Who dare call the child by its right name? 
The few that know something of it, 
And foolishly opened their hearts, 
Revealing to the vulgar crowd their views, 
Were ever crucified or burnt." 

— Goethe's Faust. 



40 THEOSOPHY. 

motto of the second, All for lower, and power lor 

SELF, AND THE DEVIL TAKE HUMANITY ! 

These Holy Brothers of Himavat, deeming the times 
propitious, offer to the world, for the first time in many 
centuries, just so much of their treasured wisdom, as it 
shows itself willing and capable of receiving. To this 
promulgation, it has already been shown, one only condi- 
tion is attached, viz., that the neophyte shall work with 
the Brothers for the elevation and liberation of the whole 
human race, without regard to color, sex, creed or nation- 
ality ; to all such the doors now are wide open, and to none 
others, though the sublime philosophy is published to the 
world. This basis of universal brotherhood, however, in- 
volves more than is at first supposed. It involves the idea 
of what Bohme calls the " Becoming Man," /. e. , that man 
shall not merely give intellectual assent to the propositions, 
but that he shall become that which he professes, and, sink- 
ing self, exercise universal philanthropy and love of man. 
" Deeds," say they, " are what we want, fine speeches 

COUNT FOR NAUGHT." 

There is one problem involved which deserves special 
mention. It is the old question, If a man die, shall he 
live again ? We are told, and the statement is supported 
by sound philosophy, that man survives the grave, that 
the soul continues after death ; indeed, that what we call 
death, is but a change, necessitated by both cosmic and 



THEOSOPHY. 41 

physiological law. We are further told, that this proposi- 
tion is subject to, and capable of demonstration to all who 
are well advanced on the Path, and that it will be furnished 
to the Chela at the proper time, this knowledge constituting 
one stage of initiation. But this does not fully answer the 
question. A more important question is, in the state after 
death, called Devachan, shall we preserve self-conscious- 
ness? and the ready answer is, "That depends." The idea 
of arbitary rewards and punishments being done away 
with, as belonging to an ignorant age, when such unjust 
conceptions were possible, exact judgment, absolute and 
impartial, takes its place. This again does away with an- 
other misconception which narrows the sphere, and limits 
the administrations of justice, viz., the idea that we, as 
human beings on this earth, are here now for the first, or 
necessarily for the last time, our unconsciousness of pre- 
vious incarnations being no proof to the contrary, when 
the reasons for such unconsciousness are made known. 
We thus reach the conclusion, that our being here now, 
the conditions upon which we come, and all the vicissi- 
tudes to w r hich we are subjected, are not by the decrees of 
chance or blind fate, nor yet of an inscrutable power, 
called by whatsoever name, but that all this has been de- 
termined by our own acts, thoughts, and motives in a pre- 
vious incarnation. This law of cause and effect is desig- 
nated Karma, and the importance of its consideration ap~ 



42 THEOSOPHY. 

pears from this, that if it be true, we are at present our- 
selves voluntarily determining, not once for all our future 
weal or woe, but preparing conditions for future life, from 
which there is no escape, and for which we can accuse no 
power in the universe but ourselves. If this be true, and 
every one has to "work out his own salvation with fear 
and trembling,'' procrastination does not help us; what 
we put off to-day, we shall have to do to-morrow ; the 
Nemesis is on our track, and the judge is our own con- 
science, and herein is seen both the prize and the penalty 
of self-conscious humanity. A new light is reflected on 
the story of Dives and Lazarus. Opportunities misapplied, 
intelligence, wealth, and power used all for self, and to op- 
press the poor, the ignorant, and degraded, by the eternal 
law of compensation, will re-act on ourselves, beyond the 
reach of prayers or penance, or mumbling of creeds, when 
the cycle of necessity is completed ; measure for measure, 
the injury done to others will return to him who sent it 
along the unerring way. 

This placing conscience as the supreme judge, gives 
real meaning to the word, Emanuel, "God with us," and 
reverting again to the question of consciousness after 
death, it is shown that man may not only determine, by 
his life here, the fact of consciousness, but that by con- 
forming to the known laws of nature, he may prolong this 
present existence far beyond the average, and so having 



THEOSOPHY. 43 

time in which to work out the results' of errors in previous 
states, he may decide for himself, not only the conditions 
of reincarnation, but incarnation itself, whether yes or no, 
and so pass from the law of Karma into personal liberty, 
called in Scripture, " redemption from sin," thus becom- 
ing free from the law, by obeying it. This condition is 
known in Eastern philosophies as Nhvana, foolishly trans- 
lated as annihilation. To the early Christians it was known 
as at-one-ment, beside which the old Jewish doctrine of 
atonement by innocent blood, is the height of cruelty and 
injustice, repugnant alike to reason and intelligence. 

If this be the line of progress, the destiny of the hu- 
man race, and evolution be given this grand and trans- 
cendent meaning, how time-serving and suicidal appears 
the materialism into which we are plunged. How puerile 
the agnosticism which helplessly says, " we do not know;" 
how lamentable, how pitiable the condition of that " Great 
Orphan, Humanity," which, brutalized by ignorance, hope- 
less and despairing, at last cries, " we do not care! " and so 
drifts into pauperism, crime, insanity, and death, to be 
lost in the awful blackness of oblivion, or returns after 
weary ages, to begin over again the struggle for self- 
consciousness, hampered by the web of their old Karma. 
To make known this truth to the world, was the "great 
work " of the old alchemists, no less than of the Thibet- 
an Brotherhood, and they desire a Universal Brotherhood 



44 rHEOSOPHY. 

of man, to work with them, and so lift the Karma of the 
world. 

In the way of the progress of this great work, stand 
not only the creeds of Christendom, but those of the whole 
world, each claiming a patent of authority direct from the 
Most High; each striving now, as for ages, to tear down 
all others, that it may build up its own ; in which insane 
effort, it has been truly said more blood has been spilt, 
more lives sacrificed, than by war, famine, and pestilence 
combined ; this is indeed, Moloch ! The Scourge of 
the Human Race ! ! 

The creeds of the world have not changed their nature, 
though they have been forced to change their methods and 
penalties for heresy. The civilized world hears with hor- 
ror of a religious war, knowing how relentlessly it is waged, 
how cruelly conducted. History has impressed this les- 
son in letters of fire and blood. The genius of creeds, no 
longer able either to convert or exterminate mankind, un- 
able to show any marked contrast in morals, or that simple 
honesty which goes to make good citizenship, between its 
votaries and large masses of mankind outside its allegiance, 
is content to accept an intellectual assent, with liberal men- 
tal reservation on the part of its nominal adherents, and 
so setting at naught the at-one-ment of man through The 
Chris/, is still powerful for evil, and that only. Thousands 
nominally profess belief, because they see no better way, 



THEOSOPHV. 45 

and from sheer habit, tradition, and inheritance, walk in 
the old way. The father of lies, is also the father of creeds 
and not He who made of one blood all the nations of the 
earth. The time is not distant when we must choose be- 
tween our creeds, and the Brotherhood of man, for they 
are antagonistic to the last degree; and that faith which is 
to remove mountains, was never yet involved in the mum- 
bling of creeds, else had the earth long ago become a dead 
level. Modern science has yet to learn the height and 
grandeur to which human beings may attain on this earth, 
as the focalized result of the dual law of evolution and 
involution ; and professed believers in Christ have also to 
learn the truth of the assertion, "These signs shall follow 
them that believe.' 1 The days of miracle, have, indeed, 
passed, for those of law and enlightenment are at hand, 
enlightenment through obedience to law, the Higher 
Law, of love, and Universal Brotherhood. Had but a 
tithe of the wealth squandered in the propagation of creeds 
in foreign lands where better creeds prevail, been spent 
in uniting the human race under this higher law, the 
millennium would long ago have dawned. Theosophy has 
this one central idea, the Brotherhood of man. Among 
its devoted followers are Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Bud- 
dhists, Pkahmanists, Mohammedans, Parsees, people of 
every race, clime and color. All that is asked, is that each 
sect shall go back to the fountain-head of its own religion, as- 



46 



THEOSOPHY 



sured that when they have removed the accretions of time, 
the innovations of greed and selfishness, the false interpre- 
tations of ignorance, they will find beneath it all, the pure 
Wisdom Religion, the Divine Sophia of Jacob Bohme; the 
Divine Beatrice of Dante ; the Pure Gold of the alchemist ; 
the White Rose of the Rosicrucians ; the Virgin of the 
World of Hermes Trismegistus ; the Virgin Isis, the Vir- 
gin Mother of the Christ of all the ages that are, that have 
been, that shall be; forever pure and virgin, yet forever 
bringing forth ; mother, wife, sister, and daughter of Osi- 
ris ; the gentle, loving, tender Woman-side of the Life-giver 
of the Universe : the better half, of every man of woman 
born, through which alone at-one-ment of the human race 
is possible, through which alone the God which is One 
can ever become all in all, Theo-Sophia. 

Even St. Augustin says : " What is now called the Chris- 
tian religion existed among the ancients, and was not ab- 
sent from the human race until Christ came, from which 
time the true religion, which existed already, began to be 
called Christian/' - ;c 

Many have been attracted to theosophy through certain 
occult phenomena which belong to the higher initiates, 
and which, we are told, through the reign of brotherhood, 

* Quoted by Heckethorne, "Secret Societies," p. 12, Introduc- 
tion. 



THEOSOPHY. 47 

will belong to the human race when redeemed from the 
slough of Mammon and materialism. To place these pow- 
ers at the command of those who are influenced by desire 
for wealth, fame, or power, would be to propagate only a 
brood of black magicians. Even in bible times, while 
there were colleges of soothsayers, schools of the prophets, 
and the like, it was commanded that a witch should be 
put to death. Those therefore who are attracted by signs 
and wonders, and expect only to witness phenomena or 
learn magic, will find the Brothers of Himavat as frigid as 
the snowy peaks they are supposed to inhabit ; nay, they 
will never find them. 

The phenomena of modern spiritualism have convinced 
most people, that there is another side to this every-day 
life of the world, though even the better sort among 
avowed spiritualists are convinced that the foul air of dark 
seance-rooms, with bell-ringing, and trumpet-blowing, are 
not only profitless, but often dangerous and demoralizing 
pastimes. Beyond the bare fact of conviction above re- 
ferred to, efforts to bring spirits back to earth and down into 
matter, are reversing the only process whereby humanity 
ever has or can advance, viz. , by elevating the life of man 
from the lowlands of existence, through aspiration and in- 
spiration, into light and knowledge. The profound phil- 
osophy already given out by the Brothers, makes plain the 
character of all such phenomena, though by so doing they 



48 THEOSOPHY. 

have roused the hostility of many spiritualists. In the 
whole realm of communication with the supposed spirits 
of the dead, the wish is father to the thought, and they are 
many who would rather hug a delusion, than know the 
truth, especially when that truth flatters not pride and 
self-conceit. 

To the intelligent theosophist, there is neither past nor 
future time, but one everlasting now. 

Change is written over and through all things of earth. 
We are not to-day what we were yesterday. Our goal to- 
day will be our starting point to-morrow. ' ' That which 
has been, is not what it was ; yet that which has been is. " 

The enlightened understanding of man seizes truth by 
intuition, and whether on the material or spiritual plane, 
when he begins to discern the plan, and comprehend the 
law, nature becomes an open scroll, in which he may read 
the wonders of his own being, no less than those of the 
universe about him. 

To awaken thought, to arrest attention, to stimulate in- 
vestigation, occult phenomena have occasionally been 
made use of; but when to the thought thus aroused the 
real problems of theosophy have been presented, many 
have turned away; joined to their idols, clamoring for 
the flesh-pots, time-serving, they have been unable or un- 
willing to seek the Truth. 

The Brothers are no miracle-mongers, nor vet scribes 



THEOSOPHY. 49 

and secretaries, with nothing to do but to answer foolish 
questions that have been answered a thousand times ; nay, 
which any one can determine by consulting his own intelli- 
gence. Time and again, have they stated the problem 
substantially as herein outlined. Our number is not 
legion ; we can not superintend the primary education of 
those who know not the alphabet of unselfishness, and who 
can only use the ten digits to count profit and loss in the 
lucre of the world. Divest yourselves of pride, lust, greed, 
and uncharitableness ; work with us for the redemption of 
the world, the regeneration of man ; work on your own 
plane, in your own way, and by and by there shall come 
to you "a new heaven and a new earth;" the "veil of 
Isis " shall be opened ; the Comforter shall come, your own 
purified spirit, and lead you into all truth. " He who lives 
the life shall know the doctrine." 

Pause not to ask your brother what he believes j lay by 
your foolish shibboleths ; pause not to count the cost or 
profit, leave that to time, to law. "If I will that I tarry 
till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me." Do 
this. Do I Do ! I and you are ours, and all we have is 
yours, for this is the at-one-ment of man. Cost what it 
may of pain or sorrow, tear the scales of self from the 
eye of your soul, and the Sons of Light will come to meet 
you, even in the shadow, ere yet the full-orbed day has 
come. The eye of self and sense hath never yet con- 



50 THEOSOPHY. 

ceived the glory that shall be revealed, not in the far-off 
heaven, but here, now, in your own soul ; and when you 
have been faithful over a few things, then shall ye be rulers 
over many things. 

" Oh Tor the noble and unselfish man to help us effect- 
ually in India, in Europe, in America, anywhere, every- 
where, in that divine task ; all our knowledge, past and 
present, would not be sufficient to repay him." 

li T/ie Mahatmas arc honest debtors " 



Note — As this goes to press, I notice the report her- 
alded triumphantly from many quarters, of the " Collapse 
of Koot Hoomi and the Theosophical Society ! " If this 
saturnalian shout were new, it would be interesting to the 
well-informed, but old as it is, as old as theosophy itself, it 
can only impose on the ignorant, to keep them in bondage 
and hide the truth, so that the few may dominate the many. 
The Jews imagined that Christianity collapsed when they 
murdered Jesus : the Roman Emperors again, when they 
burned Christians to illuminate their gardens : and so, in 
every age, falsehood, in every garb of authority, by blood, 
murder, fire, and sword, has imagined the truth collapsed. 
There is a change of methods, as burning is out of fashion, 
and a change of names, from God's Vicegerent and In- 



THEOSOPHV. 51 

quisitor-General, to the Society for Psychic Research, who 
imagine that by showing a leading and professed theoso- 
phist as a fraud, theosophy itself is collapsed. Admitting 
for the sake of the argument, all they claim of fraud or 
deception on the part of individuals, and they have proved 
only the weakness or wickedness of individuals, nothing 
more. These individuals are quite competent to answer 
for themselves. So, also, is theosophy ; and they who 
comprehend its teachings, its sublime and everlasting truth, 
are not alarmed by the exegesis of Materialism and so- 
called Science, more than by those of other names and 
greater dignity. 

"They are slaves, who dare not speak 
For the fallen and the weak ; 
They are slaves, who will not choose 
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, 
Rather than, in silence, shrink 
From the truth they needs must think; 
They are slaves, who dare not be 
In the light with two or three." 



NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

It could hardly be expected that four years should pass 
in the history of the Theosophical Society without another 
"collapse." It has accordingly come. This time the 



52 THEOSOPHV. 

news is heralded from the camp of the spiritualists, and 
consists of a genuine revival in one section of the afore- 
said camp, the.*' materializations" of which consist entirely 
of mud, and the manifestations consist solely of low 
blackguarding. The "seance" was spiritual, if the intox- 
ication that followed is any criterion. The chairman of 
the Theosophical Convention held at Chicago, in April of 
1888, was with difficulty restrained from issuing a "Bull 
excommunicating the Pope at Rome." The aforesaid 
chairman, having been retired from the society, and being 
at full liberty to join the seance above named, has now 
perpetuated his "roaring farce " by excommunicating or 
"expelling" Madame Blavatsky from the society which 
she organized, and of which he is no longer a member, or in 
any way connected. It is unnecessary to add comment to 
this recital of facts. These frequent collapses, however, 
remind one of the Irishman's stone w T all, as described by 
that veteran philanthropist and member of the Theosoph- 
ical Society, Parker Pillsbury. Pat said he built his wall 
four feet high and five feet wide, so that, if it fell over, it 
would be a foot higher than it was before ! It has long 
been noted that, after every "collapse" the Theosophical 
Society springs into renewed life, and takes deeper root, 
spreading wider its branches, while the Bull "expelling 
Madame H. P. Blavatsky'' is hardly funny enough to be 
Celtic, or dignified enough to deserve notice. Among the 



THEOSOPHY. 53 

many thousands of members of the Theosophical Society 
scattered over nearly every country of the civilized world, 
these matters are well understood. Only those who are 
ignorant of the facts can be deceived by them. To re- 
press or to distort the truth, to impose on the ignorant 
and credulous, and to blackguard one's opponents, seems 
to be the sign-manual of those who forever raise the satur- 
nalian shout, ' ' The Theosophical Society is collapsed. " When 
the essential Brotherhood of Humanity ceases to be a fact 
whether recognized by individuals or not, then indeed, 
may Theosophy become a farce and the Theosophical 
Society collapse, and not till then. 

That even the members of the Theosophical Society 
should every-where and at all times act on the principle 
and live up to the requirements of universal brotherhood 
is hardly to be expected. Whenever the great mass of 
humanity act upon this principle the millennium will have 
come. Then there will be no need of Theosophical So- 
cieties to keep before the world the principle of altruism, 
the pure and undefined doctrine of the Buddhas and the 
Christ, untrammeled by creeds, and unclouded by rit- 
ualism. 

A Theosophist is one who in thought, word, and deed, 
every-where and at all times, lives up to the Christ-prin- 
ciple of altruism, best expressed by the phrase, The 
Universal Brotherhood of Man. A consistent member 



54 THEOSOPHY. 

of the Theosophical Society is one who is doing his best 
in this direction, and striving to become a Theosophist. 
But, it may be said, Christians are striving in the same di- 
rection ; then what is the need of Theosophy and the 
Society. The answer is that so-called Christianity is al- 
truism plus "orthodoxy" that is, creeds, rites, ceremonies 
and litanies, and very often the ceremony serves only to 
obscure the altruism. Theosophy makes altruism only 
essential, and claims for each and every individual abso- 
lute liberty and perfect freedom to formulate any intel- 
lectual belief, or to repudiate all creeds, as seemeth to 
him best. With the warring sects of Christendom, as 
with other great religions, orthodoxy is considered essen- 
tial. There are said to be over three hundred " sects" in 
Protestant England alone. ,If England has progressed 
that far toward personal liberty, the logic of events and 
the philosophy of history may easily forecast the future, 
and allow every man and woman to constitute a "sect," 
and the only loser will then be the organized power of the 
priesthood and Religious Establishment. The gainer will 
be Humanity. Then only will it be understood and 
every-where admitted, that the human soul is the real 
temple of the Most High ; and the indwelling of the Holy 
Ghost will inspire the life of the soul of man. The "sav- 
ing ordinances" will be the altruistic life of every man 



THEOSOPHY. 



55 



and woman. Theosophy, therefore, means more Chris- 
tianity and less orthodoxy; more altruism, more liberty, 
and less ceremony ; more genuine worship of the Simple 
Truth, and fewer shams. 




LofC 



NOV 16 1900 



i 




